On my free night last week, I went to see “Giulio Cesare.” Because why stay home and catch up with “Smash” when I could be spending four and a half hours at the Met? I’ll refer to my colleague James Jorden’s review for a musical appreciation, but I wanted to throw in my two cents regarding the staging. (Speaking of throwing in money: $8 for a brownie, Met?! Is this a sneaky way to make up for lost revenue after having had to lower some seat prices?)

Having seen the DVD of the original Glyndebourne cast, I was familiar with David McVicar’s production, which transfers the setting to the early 20th century, with colonial Brits in pith helmets and red jackets as the Romans and Indians as the Egyptians. This left room for poetic license, as star Natalie Dessay’s Cleopatra broke into Bollywood choreography in a sari-like outfit in one scene, only to look like a Jazz Age flapper in the next.

Overall this choice paid off, even if the stage looked a bit underpopulated at times. I know the Met is moving away from Zeffirelli-style crowd scenes but the pendulum swung to the other extreme here. England didn’t set out on its imperial conquests with a handful of lads.

Dessay, of course, was the big attraction. She’s familiar with the role, having recently played it in a different production at the Paris Opera (which also shared the Met’s Ptolemy, Christophe Dumaux). Judging from the reviews and YouTube evidence, the main takeaway was a feat of costume design in which Cleopatra’s sheer dress seemed to hang from her nipples.

At the Met, the spry Dessay confirmed her acting chops, and I enjoyed her more than in the much-praised “La Fille du Régiment,” which flirted so much with hamminess that it transitioned into heavy petting. She’s said in interviews that she considers herself an actress first, a singer second, adding that once her opera career wanes, she’d like to do straight plays. Last fall, she did a reading of “Molly Bloom’s Soliloquy,” from “Ulysses.” A sign of things to come?

There could be a pop future as well: In a typically entertaining radio interview, she named Barbra Streisand as her favorite singer. She also did several concerts with composer Michel Legrand last year, and there may be more on the horizon. Of course Dessay wouldn’t be the first opera singer to venture in those troubled waters, but she may be able to pull it off better than, say, Renée Fleming.